“Hello, Boils and Ghouls” became a common refrain in the ’90s for horror fans thanks to HBO’s cult favorite anthology series, Tales from the Crypt. For seven whole seasons, the cackling, wisecracking Crypt Keeper (an iconic puppet voiced by John Kassir), we got to witness horrible people meet grim and funny fates. Aside from a DVD release of individual seasons, the series hasn’t been readily available anywhere for a very long time. UNTIL NOW! (Yeah, you knew that was coming.) Thanks to Shudder, beginning May 1, we’ll get the entirety of Tales from the Crypt at our beck and call.
Shudder is making an event of this. So on May 1, we’ll only get season one. Additional seasons will roll out weekly on Fridays through June 12. The first season of Tales from the Crypt only has six episodes (the rest all have at least 13). However, I’d say four of those are all-timers. “The Man Who Was Dead,” “And All Through the House,” “Dig That Cat…He’s Real Gone,” and “Collection Completed” are among the best they ever made.
“Tales from the Crypt isn’t just a series — it’s a cornerstone of horror storytelling. Becoming its exclusive streaming home is both an honor and a thrill for us at Shudder,” said Courtney Thomasma, Executive Vice President of AMC Global Media’s linear and streaming products. “This is the kind of genre-defining, wonderfully twisted entertainment our members crave, and we’re proud to give The Crypt Keeper a place to cackle once again.”
Tales from the Crypt is, of course, an adaptation of the classic 1950s EC Comics anthologies. The artwork of those comics were delightfully gruesome and perfectly compliment the macabre stories. Those stories in turn inspired other such comics-skewed horror anthologies like Creepshow and Tales from the Darkside. Tales from the Crypt the show, despite its hard-R gore, nudity, and bad language, spun-off into the Saturday morning animated series, Tales from the Cryptkeeper.
Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Letterboxd.
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